Japanese satellite service Wowow has broken the 2.6 million subscribers barrier.

The broadcaster recorded 1.7 times more new subscriptions in December than in the same month the previous year. Wowow is expected to benefited from the highly-publicised launch of digital broadcast satellite services on December 1.

The company recruited 42,708 subscribers to its digital service. Analog subscriptions rose 17,565 over the previous month, to 2,560,397.

Rival Sky PerfecTV also recorded strong gains in December, with subscriptions passing the 2.5 million mark for the first time.